Editorials
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Secrecy lifted from child death cases
The tragic details of 2-year-old Guillermo Alvarez's life and death appeared in a recent Californian article. But it took an act of the state Legislature and the signature of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to lift the veil of secrecy from tragedies such as Guillermo's.
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A better way of studying, and fixing, dropout problem
Dropout rates have a direct correlation to juvenile crime, so it stands to reason that keeping kids in school helps to keep our streets safe. And if that's the case, few parts of California stand to benefit from effective stay-in-school programs more than Kern County, one of four Central Valley counties with dropout rates higher than the state average of 18.9 percent. And based on 2007-08 data from the California Department of Education, Kern County's dropout rate is the highest, at 26.9 percent.
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Local leaders must start pushing to win HSR test track
Local leaders ought to be jumping on this train, and quickly: the California High Speed Rail Authority must soon decide on the placement of a test track, and a Bakersfield stop is among the options being considered. The area that is selected to host the track, the first phase of a statewide system of 220-mph trains that proponents expect to annually carry 117 million passengers by 2030, would see significant and longterm benefits.
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Hope for papers, sort of
A recent University of Georgia study shows that only six in 10 graduates from journalism schools during the 2007-08 year had full-time jobs within eight months. But those programs granted more degrees than ever, about 55,000. What's going on here? Apparent answer: Confidence that social media (i.e., Facebook) will play a role in next-generation journalism. Will those grads be adequately paid? Good question. But many of them seem to think so.
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Legislators, look into PG&E fiasco
The outcry over PG&E's SmartMeters has reached a crescendo unlike anything we've heard recently in the public-utility realm. Consumers across Bakersfield are reporting huge increases in their electricity bills -- despite, in many cases, having taken energy-saving steps that should have cut the the amount owed.
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Make owners, not their dogs, pay for bites
Anyone who has been bitten by a pit bull, or had a beloved dog or cat crushed in the jaws of that potentially vicious breed, can attest to the fear and heartbreak that accompany those encounters.
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Happy Constitution Day
On Monday, Congress OK'd H.Res. 686, which recommends that all high school seniors spend a week in September studying the Constitution. Way to go, Congress! If you paid attention, you'd recall that schools receiving federal funds must already teach about the Constitution each Sept. 17 (Constitution Day). And state curriculum guidelines mandate much earlier study of the Constitution. But passing bills on the subject makes you look good. Sort of. Except to folks who abhor federal intrusion on education standards.
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Put up with these clowns part-time
Credit illustrious legislators like Orange County bozo Mike Duvall for reminding us of this excellent idea: Maybe it's time to go back to a part-time legislature.
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Welcome back, BBC
It's great to know that the Bakersfield Business Conference is making a comeback after a four-year absence. Founder-host George Martin has always had good instincts about the day-long festival of politics, entertainment and conservatism. First, back in the 1980s, he was prescient in divining that there was sufficient interest in such a gathering in the first place. Second, he correctly recognized that even an event regularly featuring presidents and prime ministers could grow stale and predictable, and that perhaps it was time to retire it. And third, he now wisely sees that the players and the topics of national debate have changed enough that the Bakersfield Business Conference can seem fresh again -- especially if it is only held once every five years instead of annually.
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Flying bullets aside, soccer park needs help
The Kern County Soccer Park is one of the finest recreational amenities in the Bakersfield area. The fields are usually in excellent shape, and the setting is spectacular. Out-of-town visitors to the 40-acre, 24-field complex are often heard commenting that the soccer park, nestled among the foothills just west of the Kern River Canyon, completely changed their perception of Bakersfield.
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These days we only shoot off our mouths
We wring our hands over the loss of civility in our public discourse. Blabber-mouth talk radio hosts and incessantly jabbering 24-hour cable newscasters seem to be constantly working Americans into a frenzy. The "birthers" over Obama. The elderly over health care reform "death panels." Same-sex marriage, clean air, global warming. Is there nothing we can agree on?
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Moron of the month
When Assemblyman Michael D. Duvall, R-Orange County, gleefully bragged to a colleague about his sexual adventures with a female lobbyist, his boast was picked up by an open microphone, enabling others, including legislative leaders, to hear.
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Obama's speech before Congress on health care reform
The tone of President Obama's Wednesday-night address to a joint session of Congress, both from the podium and the gallery, served to illustrate the degree of animosity that has arisen over this health care debate.
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What Obama said (and should've said) to students
Now that we've heard President Obama's speech to U.S. school kids, can we now admit that some Americans may have overreacted? No, probably not. When the president is the anti-Christ, even a benignly wholesome message about education and perseverance is a bad thing.
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Leaders failed to be good stewards
The grim word of the summer of 2009 is "unsustainable." As in, the pension benefits that Bakersfield and Kern County elected officials doled out to their public employees are "unsustainable."
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Why don't schools have means to pull off a TV broadcast?
The debate over whether schoolchildren should be permitted to hear President Obama encourage academic responsibility by way of a C-SPAN broadcast this Tuesday raises two troubling questions about the state of California schools -- and neither has much to do with presidential politics.
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The president's speech to schoolchildren
It's deju vu day in America's classrooms, as evidenced by the president's speech on education, broadcast to schools from coast to coast. Here's an excerpt:
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A different sort of Labor Day
With Labor Day approaching amid persistently high unemployment rates, this seems like a good time to honor two categories of recession-hardened Americans.
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Why Obama ought to go to school with your kid on Tuesday
How far has civic education fallen when the president's plans to speak to the nation's schoolchildren about "the importance of education" hits the stiff wind of hyper-partisan rejection?
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Conserve water, yes; but build, too
In parched California, nothing riles folks up more than a good water war. And that includes folks in Sacramento, where a whole slew of special interests -- farmers, farmworkers, environmentalists, developers, Northern California cities and Southern California cities -- are pressuring legislators over plans to improve the state's fragile water system.
